This work establishes a characterization theorem for (generalized) Young measures generated by symmetric derivatives of functions of bounded deformation (BD) in the spirit of the classical KinderlehrerâPedregal theorem. Our result places such Young measures in duality with symmetric-quasiconvex functions with linear growth. The âlocalâ proof strategy combines blow-up arguments with the singular structure theorem in BD (the analogue of Albertiâs rank-one theorem in BV), which was recently proved by the authors. As an application of our characterization theorem we show how an atomic part in a BD-Young measure can be split off in generating sequences.